Drones monitoring Mumbai-Pune expressway traffic; Maharashtra Government is using them to minimize the lane cutting exercise on highways
Maharashtra Government has taken an unique step to minimize the lane cutting exercise by drivers on highways. The Government is using drones to monitor traffic on the Mumbai-Pune expressway, and 15 truck drivers were penalized for cutting lanes on the expressway. The drivers were handed over the challan at either Urse toll plaza or Khalapur toll plaza.
Using drones to monitor traffic on expressway is the first time in Maharashtra. The demonstration ran between 12 noon to 4 pm, and during that two drones were used in the ghat sections between Lonavala exit and Khalapur toll plaza. The Pune police department has informed, that such demonstration will be repeated again.
Maharashtra Government is using drones to monitor traffic on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway as a pilot project. Deepak Kesarkar, the Maharashtra Minister of State for Home (Urban) informed about the project a while ago. He said, the expressway is a death trap as a large number of accidents have been being reported in recent times.
The Minister also said, the accidents reported were largely due to rash driving, and because of shortage in manpower surveillance on rash driving is not possible on such a large expressway. Therefore the drones might come handy as it will give the police adequate information about the traffic rule breaking vehicles with much needed evidence also.
The trucks are largely known for being involved in major number of accidents on highways across the country. They are also known for cutting lanes, which cause major troubles for other vehicles on roads. Using drones to monitor traffic and penalizing the traffic rule breakers could minimize the number of mishaps.